The Red Cross’s Defense of Its Haiti Relief Efforts

The Red Cross is a steward of the public trust and must maintain complete confidence from the public to fulfill its 135-year-old humanitarian mission.

Your editorial misses the mark, however, by not scrutinizing the assertion that 25 percent of the $488 million donated to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief went only to administrative costs and fund-raising.

Only 9 percent went for management, general and fund-raising expenses, sometimes called overhead. The rest went for costs vital to providing humanitarian aid. These costs include paying for staff members (a majority of whom are Haitian) and infrastructure to help manage and oversee approximately 100 projects we funded. This isn’t “overhead” — it is what makes the delivery of humanitarian aid possible.

Haiti has presented one of the most challenging and complex disaster responses ever. Yet we have effectively delivered close to half a billion dollars of humanitarian assistance in the form of new hospitals, repaired homes, clean water, vaccinations, job training, improved sanitation and other life-altering assistance to millions of Haitians.

While our response has been examined closely, there have been no findings of fraud or abuse. We believe that our disaster response efforts remain worthy of the public’s trust.